The first place the kids went back to was the forest. Dipper was adamant that they patrol around the perimeters at least one more time to ensure that no more gem monsters show up and start wrecking things up without supervision. Mabel promised Steven they would go to the town after. They had taken care of that Paranthium alright, but who knows when the next occurrence might be, and if the kids were all fusioned-out for now...

One of Steven's guardians - the purple one, he thought. Amethyst? - had pointed out that that should've meant that they should probably stay home and not go looking for trouble until after Eclipse was ready to be formed again, but what was the point? Eclipse was Dipper and Mabel, after all, and as long as they were together, Dipper was sure they were going to be fine -

Mabel stopped. Which meant that Steven stopped. Which meant Dipper bumping the journal onto Steven's back and hitting his nose on the top of the open spine.

"Oof!"

"Sorry 'bout that, Dip sauce. Maple syrup -"

"Ach, ach, ach, Sundae. Shush."

A deep growl rumbled the foliage in front of them. The kids each drew their weapons and lowered into a stance. Or, Dipper held his sword shakily in front of him in an imitation of a stance, Mabel kept alternating her crossbow between anything and everything that moved, and Steven was scared.

"You know," he whispered, laughing nervously. Rivulets of cold sweat flowed down his neck, chilling his goosebump-riddled skin to the bone. "I wonder what Connie's name could translate to in food speak. M-maybe we can sit around and think about it later..."

Neither twins asked the quartz gem where his weapon was, which he was grateful for. He guessed they were too busy activating their X-Ray Vision or something cool like that.

In actuality, if it had been any closer to night, Dipper would've been talking a lot more - asking questions about other gems, Steven's home town, his weapon and other identity-important questions. As it stood though, it was currently one P-M in the afternoon and the pounding Sun, made worse by Mabel's anxiety, seemed to be sapping Dipper's strength away like a long-distance leech. And he had tried to get Mabel to ask on his behalf but the answers to sate his curiosity was not worth the effort of playing charades with his lovable but rather exasperating sister.

"Nobody move!" Mabel yelled into the bushes. "Come out in a calm and orderly fashion, and we will not shoot!"

"Do they actually say that in Duck-tective?" Dipper asked, beads of sweat rolling heavily down his face.

Mabel shrugged back. "I'm experimenting."

"Uhh, guys?" Steven squeaked. The rustling leaves drew closer. And closer. The twins stopped talking outside of tensing up and letting out the occasional low whimpering of distress. They flanked Steven and raised their weapons.

Out jumped a white bunny rabbit.

It licked its paw and twitched its nose at them. Its raspberry-colored eyes blinked innocently, ears folding in on themselves. Tiny tusks jutted out from inside its small W-shaped mouth.

Mabel 'aww'-ed and happily dropped her weapon, letting it dematerialise before it reached the ground. Steven laughed. He rushed forwards, scooping the little animal in his warm chubby arms.

Dipper, meanwhile, kept his distance from the furry critter, even going as far to take a step back.

"Uh, guys? I think I've read something like this before..."

"Oh relax Dipper!" Mabel laughed. She was now with Steven tossing the bunny around like a basketball, back and forth, back and forth. For a split second, while the little thing was in the air, Dipper thought he saw it look at him. Then it was caught by his sister and squeezed for the life of it.